NU Paper: JUAN A. VILLAMOR, MBAH Section 10B
The Things That Piss Me Off at the Supermarket or Department Store
Like most good husbands, I accompany my wife on her weekly sojourn to the grocery or the almost-monthly shopping trip. Some days are easy, with just a few items on the list and shoppers are sparse. There are days, however, when going to the supermarket or department store is a real chore. Aside from the crush of people, the long lines at the checkout counters add to the aggravation. What especially irks me is when the lines stretch and weave around racks of clothes or grocery shelves, while empty cashier counters sit idly, unmanned and pleading to be of use.
I've often – as in 90% of the time – inquired from what seemed like supervisors, why they would not open additional checkout counters, given the long lines and the tedious, stressful wait that consumers have to endure. In almost the same number of times – with a very few exceptions – all I get are wry smiles, with the staff slowly backing away and disappearing in the throng of shoppers. In one out of around 20 cases, the supervisor actually calls on a reserve cashier, and not-so-promptly opens an empty checkout counter, and ever so proudly grins at me.
Before operations management, I only complained about the lack of customer relations skills of supermarket or department store personnel, even among supervisors and managers. As a general observation, customer service is way below the priorities of what ironically are deployed as "service" staff, from gasoline boys to barong-clad service personnel in high-end shops. Either you have to ask them to clean your windshield, or get passed around to get an otherwise simple inquiry addressed. Whether they are poorly paid or having a bad-hair day, personal or work-related issues are no excuse for lousy service.
Because of operations management, however, I now particularly appreciate the number of minutes I have to wait in line on checkout counters, and how service personnel organize their work to make a shopping experience worth looking forward to. I now wonder how a short course on operations management can actually benefit front-line staff, and earn the gratitude and admiration of their customers.
Aside from the training expense, I don't think it will cost much to cut the lines and make the wait more bearable for shoppers. For one, it's not as if there are no counters; checkout counters are idle because supervisors and managers would not deploy people to man those counters. They assume its okay for people to wait in line for ages, without considering the possibility that those in the line are tired, hungry, have to catch another appointment, or just want to go home after tiring day.
On the contrary, what I think managers should do is begin counting the number of people lining up in any of their checkout counters, and more importantly, measuring the time any one of those people actually get to the cashier. In my experience, long lines actually dissuade people from making a purchase, especially if they can buy the same stuff from a similar yet less congested store. In short, while long lines may be a sign of good business, long lines are actually not good for the business, especially if efficiency is a major business parameter.
In my mind, the line to the checkout counter should not be longer than five people, and those in line should not wait more than five minutes to reach the cashier. Floor supervisors should be able to alert and deploy reserve cashiers if the line has more than five people, or people wait for more than five minutes before getting to the cashier. Toll gates in major expressways now deploy ambulant tellers, and there is no reason why supermarkets or groceries cannot deploy mobile cashiers to serve throngs of shoppers crashing checkout counters. 3
The quicker I'm able to fill up my shopping list, pay for my loot and leave the store, the more pleasurable will be my experience of parting with my hard-earned cash. <maybe while waiting they encourage you to make impulse buying>
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